scholarly journals Fake News and the Convention on Cybercrime

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-358
Author(s):  
Robert Smith ◽  
Mark Perry

The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent term of the United States President, Donald Trump, brought the term “fake news” to the attention of the broader community. Some jurisdictions have developed anti-fake news legislation, whilst others have used existing cybercrime legislation. A significant deficiency is the lack of a clear definition of fake news. Just because a person calls something “fake news” does not mean that it is indeed false. Especially during pandemics, the primary aim should be to have misinformation and disinformation removed quickly from the web rather than prosecute offenders. The most widely accepted international anti-cybercrime treaty is the Convention on Cybercrime developed by the Council of Europe, which is silent on fake news, the propagation of which may be a cybercrime. There is an Additional Protocol that deals with hate speech, which the authors consider to be a subset of fake news. Using examples from Southeast Asia, the paper develops a comprehensive definition of what constitutes fake news. It ensures that it covers the various flavours of fake news that have been adopted in various jurisdictions. Hate speech can be considered a subset of fake news and is defined as the publication or distribution of fake news with the intention to incite hatred or violence against ethnic, religious, political, and other groups in society. The paper proposes some offences, including those that should be applied to platform service providers. The recommendations could be easily adapted for inclusion in the Convention on Cybercrime or other regional conventions. Such an approach is desirable as cybercrime, including propagating fake news, is not a respecter of national borders, and has widespread deleterious effects. Keywords: Fake news; hate speech; Convention on Cybercrime; draft legislation

Author(s):  
Umaru A. Pate ◽  
Adamkolo Mohammed Ibrahim

In addition to looking at the ongoing election campaigns in Nigeria, past election campaigns both locally and globally (especially since Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the 2016 presidential election in the United States) have highlighted how fake news and hate speech can be used to cause political instability in society. Ever since, fake news and hate speech issues and their impacts on democratic processes have gained widespread research attention. Hence, an urge exists to not only further understand the concepts of fake news and hate speech but also to define them based on empirical and critical literature. This chapter intends to clearly provide further understanding about the definition of fake news through a redefinition of the concept based on a critical review of literature. Also, critically discussed in this chapter are the impacts both fake news and hate speech can have on the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria. Some policy recommendations are offered.


Author(s):  
Umaru A. Pate ◽  
Adamkolo Mohammed Ibrahim

In addition to looking at the ongoing election campaigns in Nigeria, past election campaigns both locally and globally (especially since Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the 2016 presidential election in the United States) have highlighted how fake news and hate speech can be used to cause political instability in society. Ever since, fake news and hate speech issues and their impacts on democratic processes have gained widespread research attention. Hence, an urge exists to not only further understand the concepts of fake news and hate speech but also to define them based on empirical and critical literature. This chapter intends to clearly provide further understanding about the definition of fake news through a redefinition of the concept based on a critical review of literature. Also, critically discussed in this chapter are the impacts both fake news and hate speech can have on the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria. Some policy recommendations are offered.


Author(s):  
Jack Goldsmith ◽  
Tim Wu

Marc Knobel is a French Jew who has devoted his life to fighting neo-Nazism, a fight that has taken him repeatedly to the Internet and American websites. In February 2000, Knobel was sitting in Paris, searching the Web for Nazi memorabilia. He went to the auction site of yahoo.com, where to his horror he saw page after page of swastika arm bands, SS daggers, concentration camp photos, and even replicas of the Zyklon B gas canisters. He had found a vast collection of Nazi mementos, for sale and easily available in France but hosted on a computer in the United States by the Internet giant Yahoo. Two years earlier, Knobel had discovered Nazi hate sites on America Online and threatened a public relations war. AOL closed the sites, and Knobel assumed that a similar threat against Yahoo would have a similar effect. He was wrong. AOL, it turned out, was atypical. Located in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, AOL had always been sensitive to public relations, politics, and the realities of government power. It was more careful than most Internet companies about keeping offensive information off its sites. Yahoo, in contrast, was a product of Silicon Valley’s 1990s bubble culture. From its origins as the hobby of Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo by 2000 had grown to be the mighty “Lord of the Portals.” At the time, Yahoo was the Internet entrance point for more users than any other website, with a stock price, as 2000 began, of $475 per share. Yang, Yahoo’s billionaire leader, was confident and brash—he “liked the general definition of a yahoo: ‘rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.’” Obsessed with expanding market share, he thought government dumb, and speech restrictions dumber still. Confronted by an obscure activist complaining about hate speech and invoking French law, Yang’s company shrugged its high-tech shoulders. Mark Knobel was not impressed. On April 11, 2000, he sued Yahoo in a French court on behalf of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism and others. Yahoo’s auctions, he charged, violated a French law banning trafficking in Nazi goods in France.


Author(s):  
Jairo N. Fuertes ◽  
Arnold R. Spokane ◽  
Elizabeth Holloway

Chapter 1 provides a formal definition of counseling psychology, citing various though similar definitions that are found on the Web sites of professional organizations, including the Society of Counseling Psychology (Division 17 of the American Psychological Association) and the American Board of Counseling Psychology (the certifying board for counseling psychologists in the United States and Canada). It also offers five unifying themes whose interplay and complementary nature distinguish counseling psychology from other psychological specialties, the uniqueness of counseling psychology, a brief history of the specialty, the culture of competence, and the founding of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP).


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele F. Margolis

AbstractWhite evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election, producing extensive debate as to who evangelicals are, what it means to be an evangelical in the United States today, and whether the electoral results are surprising or not. This paper offers empirical clarity to this protracted discussion by asking and answering a series of questions related to Trump's victory in general and his support from white evangelicals in particular. In doing so, the analyses show that the term “evangelical” has not become a synonym for conservative politics and that white evangelical support for Trump would be higher if public opinion scholars used a belief-centered definition of evangelicalism rather than relying on the more common classification strategies based on self-identification or religious denomination. These findings go against claims that nominal evangelicals, those who call themselves evangelicals but are not religious, make up the core of Trump's support base. Moreover, strong electoral support among devout evangelicals is not unique to the 2016 election but rather is part of a broader trend of evangelical electoral behavior, even when faced with non-traditional Republican candidates. Finally, the paper explores why white evangelicals might support a candidate like Trump. The paper presents evidence that negative partisanship helps explain why devout evangelicals—despite Trump's background and behaviors being cause for concern—coalesced around his presidential bid. Together, the findings from this paper help make sense of both the 2016 presidential election and evangelical public opinion, both separately and together.


2020 ◽  
pp. 019685992097715
Author(s):  
James Morris

“Fake News” has been a frequent topic in the last couple of years. The phenomenon has particularly been cited with regards to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. The creation of “post truth” reports that are disseminated via the Web and social media has been treated as something new, a product of the digital age, and a reason to be concerned about the effects of online technology. However, this paper argues that fake news should be considered as part of a continuum with forms of media that went before in the 20th Century, and the general trend of postmodernity detailed by Baudrillard. The simulation of communications media and mass reproduction was already evident and has merely progressed in the digital age rather than the latter providing a wholly new context. The paper concludes by asking whether the political havoc caused by fake news has an antidote, when it appears to be a by-product of media simulacra’s inherent lack of connection to the real. In a communications landscape where the misrepresentations of the so-called “Mainstream Media” are decried using even more questionable “memes” on social media, is there any possibility for truth?


Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Marx

The article investigates the phenomenon of hate speech on social network sites and gives an overview of the national and international legal instruments which are available to combat hate speech. After an overview of the nature of hate speech andthe early international attempts to curb it, hate speech in South Africa is investigated. The question is posed whether statements of hatred made on the Internet, especially if published from sites such as Facebook which is external to South Africa, can leadto liability for perpetrators in South Africa. International responses to hate speech in cyberspace are then investigated with specific reference to the possible liability of Internet service providers for hate speech posted by third parties on their websites. Itis shown that, although service providers in the United States enjoy more protection than those in European Union, Canada and South Africa, hate speech on social network sites can be legally curbed. It is concluded that the myth that the Internet as a godless, lawless zone can and must be dismissed.


Author(s):  
Andressa Costa ◽  
◽  
Ana Bernardi ◽  
◽  

The coronavirus pandemic has suddenly and fast emerged, bringing new challenges on a global scale. Brazil and the United States have been for months the two countries with most cases and deaths by Covid-19 in the world, until India surpassed Brazil, and only on the number of cases. Therefore, there are similarities in the way their presidents have been dealing with the crisis. Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro have been in standout on international media by their poor leadership in face of the crises created by the pandemic. Both presidents have politicized the crisis, standing against scientific evidence and world recommendations. Contrary to social isolation, they have antagonized governors and mayors, intensifying conflicts despite the lost lives, disqualifying the media as fake news. Given that, this paper aims to analyse how the populist leaders, in Brazil and in the United States, have responded to the coronavirus crisis in terms of actions and discourses. For this purpose, we analyse tweets from both their official Twitter accounts, on the period from the first official recorded case until the milestone of 100 thousand deaths in each country.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Sciannamea ◽  
Mura Giulia ◽  
Davide Diamantini

<p>Worries about the diffusion of fake news and its impact on society have grown considerably in the last few years. Researchers in different fields have recognized the need to better understand the reasons behind its spread and identify strategies to combat it. This article resumes the main results achieved in different fields of knowledge, to define a theoretical framework. We performed a systematic review of recent literature (2013–2018), which showed that even if the concept of “fake news” has attracted a great number of researchers there still isn’t a clear definition of the phenomenon nor a plan on how to combat it. The results suggest the need for education and schools to promote programme and policies that may support pupils in recognizing and defending themselves from fake news at national and international levels. </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Cardoso ◽  
Ana Catarina Bruno

Social networks are interactive platforms developed to facilitate relations and exchanges of information between people who share the same interests, experiences and opinions (Recuero, 2009). The main goal of this study is to know the definition of cyberculture and cyberspace and understand the phenomenon of hate speech on social networks. The theoretical framework of the article is about the understanding of cyberculture and cyberspace, the evolution of social networks and the definition of hate speech and its targets. Finally, a case study is carried on the combat policies against hate speech lead by the Council of Europe. The methodology will include state of art analysis, literature review and the observation of the Council of Europe website. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0810/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


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